Private Coombs has proved very difficult to research. I
believe that I now know who he was but absolute proof still evades me. The name on the war memorial gives us few clues, so I am
grateful that the Roll of Honour in the chapel is more revealing. There we find listed:
Private Walter H Coombs R.I.P 8th Wiltshires
There are no soldiers of this name on the Commonwealth war graves database nor is he listed on the Soldiers died in the Great War CD.
The Museum of the Royal Gloucestershire and Wiltshire Regiments in the Close, Salisbury have, in their lists, a Private H.W.Coombs 22186 of the 8th Wiltshire Regiment. The museum curator was also able to tell me that the 8th Wiltshires never fought abroad.
I decided to look from a different angle. What connection did Walter Coombs have to West Grimstead and why was he on this village war memorial? There are no Coombs in West Grimstead at the time of the 1901 census but
I have found two families with the name of Coombs living over the border in
Hampshire. One in West Dean and one in Lockerley. Both have sons that could be
our soldier.
The West Dean family is
made up of parents Newton and Amelia Coombs living with 2 sons, Henry Coombs and
Lewis Newton Coombs. The 1891 census gives the name of the eldest son as Henry W
Burgess Coombs. I located the eldest sons birth certificate dated 1888 and this
shows his name to be registered as Henry William Burgess Coombs and he was born
in West Dean.
Now to the Lockerley
family; Here we can see parents Henry and Martha Coombs living with their 2
sons, Walter and Herbert. Walter was born in West Dean in 1894. It seemed
significant to me that we also have a soldier on the Roll of Honour called R
Herbert Coombs. I decided to find there birth certificates. Walter Henry Coombs
was born 12 September 1894 in Dean and Richard Herbert Coombs was born 26
December 1896 in Lockerley, both sons of Henry and Martha Coombs.
Martha Coombs wife of Henry
died in 1903.
I then looked at Registers of
Electors for the years 1911, 1915 and 1918 to see if there was any sign of this
Coombs family living in West Grimstead around the war years. There is no sign in
the 1911 and 1915 but the 1918 Register for West Grimstead shows Henry
William Coombs with a wife Ann and absent voter Herbert Richard Coombs NM
(naval or military). There is no mention of Walter Henry Coombs -
is it known that he has already died? But looking at the 1918 Register of
electors for West Dean this shows absent voter Walter Coombs NM - is this
our man?
Fairly recently I have been
able to access more soldiers records online saving a trip to the National
Archives at Kew. These include available service records, medal cards and
pension records. Searching through these I have found a Service
Record of Henry Walter Coombs from Lockerley. Aged 20 years and 11 months he
joined up as an Infantryman on 5th September 1914. I feel certain
that this is our mystery soldier and his family the family shown living in
Lockerley in 1901 as the details tie up perfectly. But I am still left
with the mystery of where and how he died.
The HW Coombs listed in the
Wiltshire Regiment database I believe to be Henry William Coombs born 1888 in
West Dean with parents Newton and Amelia. He enlisted in Devizes in the
Wiltshire Regiment later joining the Machine Gun Corp. He died on 4 July 1916
and has no known grave, but he is listed in the Thiepval Memorial. Clearly with
two Henry W Coombs joining the Wiltshire Regiment at more or less the same time
it's a possibility that there has been mixed up information somewhere.
Having checked and
re-checked all the sources of information regarding soldiers of WW1, their
deaths and burials there is still nothing that matches our Walter Henry Coombs
to show when or where he died. Medal cards and other records do not match.
So for the moment it will have to remain a mystery how Walter H Coombs met his
end and maybe only God will ever knows his final resting place.
So if there is anyone out there with more information about this
soldier I would be very happy to hear from you.
